The present invention relates to electronic price label (EPL) systems, and more specifically to a system and method of consolidating information for display by EPLs.
EPL systems typically include a plurality of EPLs for merchandise items in a transaction establishment. EPLs typically display the prices of corresponding merchandise items on store shelves and are typically attached to a rail along the leading edge of the shelves. A transaction establishment may contain thousands of EPLs to display the prices of the merchandise items. The EPLs are coupled to a central server from where information about the EPLs is typically maintained in an EPL data file. Price information displayed by the EPLs is obtained from a price look-up (PLU) data file and stored within an EPL price change record.
EPLs are typically used to display more than price information. The additional information may include promotional information and information to assist in managing the transaction establishment, such as inventory information, shelf talker type, average item movement, number of facings for an item, plan-o-gram compliance information, and re-order information. However, EPLs have limited storage and display capabilities.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method of consolidating information for display by EPLs.
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a system and method of consolidating information for display by electronic price labels (EPLS) is provided.
A system and method of consolidating information for display which relies on codes. The system includes a database including a plurality of types of information besides price to be displayed by an electronic price label and a computer. The computer schedules messages for transmission to the electronic price label, including a message containing the information. The computer identifies a number of the types of information to be displayed by the electronic price label, obtains the number of the types of information from the database, determines parameters for storing and displaying the number of types of information, and creates a code incorporating the number of types of information and the parameters for storing and displaying the number of types of information.
A method of consolidating information for display by an electronic price label includes identifying a number of types of information to be displayed, obtaining the number of types of information from a data file, determining parameters for storing and displaying the number of types of information, and creating a code incorporating the number of types of information and the parameters for storing and displaying the number of types of information.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a system and method of consolidating information for display by EPLs.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and method of displaying employee-directed business information without disrupting the display of price and/or promotional information by an EPL.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and method of displaying as much employee-directed business information as possible using a condensed format.